Maelstrom

[Ciarda]

In the armory, Taji felt an odd sensation as the machine did its job and equipped her with the necessary armor. The Shifter reluctantly allowed Wolfe to walk her through the modifications and choices, making sure that her own outfit was as minimalistic as possible. When the display showed what she had in mind, she nodded, and chuckled at Wolfe's seemingly concerned expression. In response to his accusation that it would barely cover her, she said simply, "That's the point. Trust me, anything more than that and it's not gonna do me any good- I gotta have my face and hands free. Last time I checked, hyperventilating on the battle-field isn't exactly considered 'effective'." There was a pause as she gauged if he had caught her meaning, straddling the fence between hoping that he had for future missions and praying that he hadn't. Granted, Taji only had two fears and death was not one of them, so she was better off than most people. However, depending on the person, claustrophobia could be taken as a laughable attribute, and the last thing she needed at present was to be the joke of the ship.

As it was, when she finished, she tested the armor, having it encompass what little of her form she would allow. Call it a tribute to the earthy sandy planet that was her home, or call it simplicity, but on its most basic level, it entailed a simple, earth toned jumpsuit of sorts- sleeveless, of course, despite its high neck. Over this, a bronzed metal clung to the vital points of her form- shoulders, boots/shins, wrists, and a section that clearly hugged what few curves she had across her chest. With a thought, it had retracted a second later though, leaving only the jumpsuit, her black gloves, boots, and a series of belts that crisscrossed her hips, all with a black stripe going up the side. The woman sighed, not quite comfortable with the cling-factor of the thing, but facing the fact that she'd just have to deal with it.

"Alright, I'm gonna head back up to the bridge," she said simply, as though that were the end of it, and turning to head towards the door.

[Forgotten Dragon's Ire]

Giving a final critical glance over Taji's new armor James said "Well I guess it will do if we see that we need to make modifications later we will make them trading features for added mobility to enhance your abilities is a good trade-off in my opinion" Checking his visors timepiece he continued "I'm sure you have other things to do Taji so I won't keep you I'm thinking I should find the Captain anyways and report on your upgraded suit... he likes to be kept informed" Giving her a smile and a quick informal salute (even though he was the superior in rank) James strode off.
After leaving the Armory he asked Iridal "Um Iridal can you hear me?" A sec later Iridal's image appeared before James and said "Why yes Lieutenant Commander Wolfe I am aware of everything that goes on, on this ship."
"You don't have to call me Lieutenant, James is fine by me. I have a question though could you tell me where the Captain is by any chance? when he mentioned the Captain, James thought he saw a smile of triumph but he couldn't be sure because it lasted only an instant. "He's down by the airlock I'm sure you'll find him easily enough" and with that she left James with a mysterious smile on her lips as if she knew something he didn't. Deciding to pay it no mind James continued on his way to the airlock and the captain.

[Wardonis]

Standing across the field of children from the old man the Captain was baffled. “Uh, can I help you?” he asked the old man. “Yes please, I wish to speak with the captain.” “I’m Captain Armstrong and this is my ship.” “Ah Captain it is good to finally meet you. My name is Vedra Yarwyn, I run a local orphanage. Most of these children will never have another chance to see a space ship again, you see the port is closing and were already a poor community. I wanted the children to have the opportunity to see a space ship while they had the chance. They wont be a bother and they wont touch anything they just want to look around.” The captain scanned the group of children ranging from three to twelve of various races. His eyes settled on a human girl of about eight who was digging a finger into her nose; they were all filthy. “I’m afraid I can’t let-” “Please Captain, It would mean so much to them”

Just then James emerged from the interior of the ship and stopped in the middle of the airlock. The captain turned to James and studied him for a second. Without turning back to the old man or saying a word he reached over and hit the latch to shut the outer door. “Report.” “Captain I came down to notify you that I took the liberty of assisting Taji with upgrading her armor. She should now be battle ready.” “Who is Taji?” The captain glared at James until he turned red. “I apologize, Petrova sir.” “Wolfe!” After a moment the captain sighed pinching the bridge of his nose. Looking up he continued, “You came all the way down here to tell me that, a written report would have done well enough. To keep you away from your new girlfriend you have just volunteered yourself for a job."

The captain reached behind himself and opened the outer door. Turning he addressed the old man. “Mr. Yarwyn, Commander Wolfe will chaperon you and your children, please make sure that you and they stay with the commander at all times.” Turning to James he whispered, “Wolfe, don’t fuck this up.” then louder “I’m headed to the guard gate to have a word with them I will return soon.”

The captain left the ship and headed for the gate as the old man and the children piled into the airlock. The outer door shut and the inner door opened and the next thing James knew the children were stampeding out into the ship and scattering everywhere. The old man attempted to reel them in to no avail and soon James and the old man were left standing alone in the airlock.

“I am sorry about this.” the old man said looking up to him.

[Forgotten Dragon's Ire]

Holding his head in his hands Wolfe thought of how to deal with this. "Okay we will just have to look for them. Um you had better stick with me so you don't get lost and keep them with you when we catch them. they both trot into the hangar and spot one of the children going up the stairs... James runs with the man Vedra following close behind. Just as James arrives at the top of the stairs he finds no trace of the child in the hall. Sighing heavily James pursues the child and finds him around the corner. Seeing the child James lunges toward him but the child ducks between his legs and runs away. "Damn the Captain will have my hide for this" James mutters

[Drakel]

Cyriscel was doing a simulation of the bridge, practicing on what to do on the worst case scenario. Aim the big gun, plasma torpedoes on the planetary destroyer, 44, 32, 01 in the simulation the big gun aimed directly at the command center of the ship shooting out a few torpedoes. The shot hit the enemy planetary destroyer directly at its target barely doing any damage due to the shields however it was supposed to react that way. The enemy planet destroyer's command center was both the strongest part of the ship and the most important. Three bomber craft bombed the maelstrom Fire the plasmoids at the planet destroyer. use the dome turrets on those bombers. Instantly in the simulation the plasmoids were fired, only seconds later did it hit the nine hundred foot planetary destroyer. Slowly the shields was disappearing. now adjust the ship to where we will have a perfect shot with the mag-rails. Cyriscel you do know that there is only a 63 percent chance that... instantly Iridal was cut off. I know now just do it. We are going to make it. The mag-rail guns shot the planet destroyer barely hitting its target be for the shields came back up. With a huge explosion the planetary destroyer was nothing more than a few broken parts.

in the end of the simulation Cyriscel Seen one of the children walking around the bridge. Wondering how and why there was a child on the ship, Cyriscel said while walking up to the child, You, tell me your name! The child looks up, seeing a wraith for the first time the child answered, Y...Yamet Obviously the child was told stories about the Wraith's, mostly just stories mother's on the "warm" planets would use to scare little children with to keep them from wondering the cities alone. Well than, let's find the caption.... no James would know what to do with you. Iridal! In a split second the AI appeared in front of Cyriscel.

Yes?

Where is James?

he in the hall near the hanger. right when Iridal finished telling Cyriscel where James was, the Wraith was already gone.

[Forgotten Dragon's Ire]

Chasing after the one young boy that got past him James finally caught him. "Now you be a good boy and stay right here with me" "Ye.. yes s-sir" glancing back at Vedra, James asked "How many kids did you bring with you..." hoping for a low number and dreading a large number "Sir I brought with me 31 kids 18 of which were boys and the other 13 were girls." Sighing at the large number James consigned himself to afternoon of wrangling little kids. Looking up the hall he saw Cyricsel approach with another kid in tow and James sighed in relief "Lieutenant I want your help in gathering up the rest of this mans charges which entails 18 boys and 13 girls." "Yes Lieutenant Commander Wolfe"
"Alright Cyricsel go around this area and look for other children."

[Ciarda]

Meanwhile, Taji was well on her way to the bridge and unaware of the mayhem ensuing within the ship in the shape of adolescent midgets. In fact, there were more pressing matters on her mind, and she was preoccupied with trying to mentally picture how she was supposed to fire any sort of weapons with this new armor. Despite whatever Wolfe said, she still had her doubts. Traditionally, Shifters were scrappers; all of the armor and weapons that she had on her person prior to taking this crazy mission was refurbished stuff that Derdre had hand-selected and reworked with a combination of know-how and creative energy. Most agreed that although scrapped, Shifter work was some of the best you could get because of the sheer ingenuity that went into it. They were not concerned so much with how it looked, but more with how well it did its job.

As such, if she had her way, Taji would rather go into this with her older stuff, but there were also other factors to consider. The Shifter noted that she was nearly to the bridge. She still owed Marcus his explanation, after all.

A few more steps and she would never have heard it, but there it was, plain as day in the still air around her. To the former assassin, the sound of scurrying feet was like the thunder of elephant feet, and she stopped short of entering the bridge. Another string of footsteps, and the pattern told her that they belonged to something small- something astoundingly small, but bipedal. The Shifter spun on her heel, a smaller gun already materializing in her hand. There was a moment of uncertainty before she moved back down the hall. Taji stopped and looked around, listening intently for anything that might give her some information, in addition to the visual clues she was getting.

Finally, something caught her eye. At the corner of a doorway close to the floor, she spotted a smudge of mud, trailing after a smattering of what appeared to be sand. A knowing smile spread across the woman's face as she lowered her weapon and crept forward. The door slid open and she found that her assumptions had been correct. "Random kid... on the ship..." she mused, looking down at the child. For a minute he just looked at her, and she noted his crimson hair and black eyes- well, its crimson hair and black eyes, for Shifter children did not acquire a gender until reaching puberty, and this child could be no more than maybe six. After another tense minute it bared its teeth and growled at her in a mock-monster fashion, melding its hands into what appeared to be hammers. Taji just shook her head and reached down, grabbing the child by the collar of its shirt.

"Really? Come on," she scoffed as she turned down the hall. "You should know how to make better weapons for yourself than that by now." That was the only admonishment that it got from her as she looked for its caretaker.

[Wardonis]

The inner airlock door opened and the captain reemerged onto the ship. Deciding he was hungry he entered the center lift and its door closed behind him. Before he could press the button for deck five he felt something tugging on his pant leg and looked down, right into the eyes of a small child. The boy smiled up at him with a huge grin. Reaching over the small boy pushed all the buttons for each of the floors and the lift rose stopping at deck two. The doors opened and something beyond the engineering doors caught his attention, as he started to head out the door the boy tugged at his pant leg again. When the captain turned back the doors shut behind him and the lift started up to the next floor. The boy just smiled. When the doors opened at deck three the boy again stopped the captain from leaving. When the door opened at deck four the captain could be seen bending forward within whispering in the boys ear. Finally the door opened on deck five the boy ran from the lift screaming and crying hysterically. The captain pushed the button for deck three.

The lift quickly returned to deck three and the captain made his way to the upper section of engineering. He leaned over the balcony and puzzled at what he saw. ”Is she-?” He paused studying the scene. “By the all the stars in the galaxy.” The captains back armored as he leapt over the rail dropping to deck two; his pack giving a jet of thrust to cushion his landing. “What in the hell do you think your doing?” he screamed in Naomi’s face. The Cyclops’ one eye blinked. “This is the engineering section of my ship not a beauty salon.” One of the little girls was sitting in one of the engineering consol with several curlers in her hair and a mask of lotion on her face. Several others were gathered about waiting their turn. Most of the engineering crew were stopping their diligent work and making their way over to watch what was transpiring. The captain roared on for a few more minutes before Naomi opened her mouth. “You are such a poo poo face. You are the meanest man I’ve ever met.” “And the meanest you ever will honey. I’m ‘mean’ for a reason, it instills discipline and exacts results.” “Your too strict; not everyone is as perfect as you.” "My crew are free to peruse their own personal goals, I wont limit them in anyway, but this is my ship and they are under my command and while they are they will follow my orders. They will act in accordance to CMC directives and show common sense when executing their duties. I demand the best and I expect no less. By no means am I perfect and I don’t expect perfection from my crew but I will not tolerate anything less than the absolute best each is capable of. That includes you.” “Then maybe I don‘t belong here.” “It looks that way, now get off my ship.”

With that Naomi ran from the room crying. The captain glanced around the group that had gathered, he pointed a young man holding some kind of tool (the only one in the group holding anything). “You, come here, whats your name?” “Zelius sir.” “Iridal” the captain grumbled. “Yes captain” Iridal said as her image appeared. “Make a note, Zelius here is now the new chief engineer and is promoted to the rank of lieutenant. Please make sure Naomi is off the ship as well.” “She is already off the ship.” “Remove her permissions, I don’t want her back on my ship or even near it. Also find Wolfe, I want these brats off my ship too.” One the girls kicked him in his shin, hard; her face was red with anger.

“Wolfe!”

[Forgotten Dragon's Ire]

Feeling a shiver down his spine James just knew the captain was angry and had just mentioned his name. James wasn't even surprised when Iridal appeared before him and told him "The Captain wants you to get these kids of this ship... now" Thinking frantically James had a bright idea "Iridal I want you to tell the crew to round up these kids and help guide them to them" within minutes of telling Iridal to alert the crew Wolfe had found all the remaining children and had herded them together with their caretaker and was soon getting the kids off of the Maelstrom.

[Wardonis]

The Captain watched the exodus of the tiny creatures and couldn’t repress a shiver. ‘Such irritating creatures’ he thought to himself as he headed back for the lift accompanied by James. “Wolfe, I want to get underway early, get to the bridge and get Light on the horn with CMC command, I’m tired of all these-” He was cut off by a muffled explosion followed closely by an alarm blearing loudly. “Fuckin Hell, now what. Comp con bridge, Stepton report” he commanded as the lift door opened. “Captain, the hull has been breached in Petrova’s quarters, sensors say it was” he paused momentarily when he continued his voice sounded alarmed, “weapons fire”. “Great, get security over there, to the hanger and down to the airlock. I want a ship wide lock down nobody gets in or out. And shut that damn alarm off.”

James and the captain stepped into the lift as the door opened, the captain hit the button for the deck 4 and the lift rose. The two exited and ran to the door of Taji’s quarters. Security was already there. “We haven’t opened it yet sir” a crewman said as they approached. “Iridal open the door” the captain commanded and watched as the door slid open. Armoring completely he brought one of his weapons to bear and scanned the room. Iridal’s voice came over his radio, “I’m showing Taji Petrova’s life signs in the bedroom and that’s also where the breach is, foam was deployed but if we weren’t on the ground that room would have been exposed to space.” As the captain moved to the bedroom door James followed closely similarly armored and with his weapons at hand.

It required quite an effort of strength to open the door. James, the captain and 2 crewmen fully armored were required to force the door . When it opened they were greeted by a room of white. The breach and the entire room from wall to wall, floor to ceiling, every surface, was coated in in white super sticky foam. In the center of the room was a mass of the white foam that was waving back and forth violently, wiggling like a cocoon about to hatch. The foam was designed to temporarily seal the room and protect items and people from being spaced. It deploys immediately if the room is breached spraying the entire room with hundreds of millions of strands of super sticky threads like spider silk. One of the security crewman stepped into the room, presumably to assist Taji, only to realize that his feet were now stuck and that he was rooted in place.

“Idiot” the captain scoffed. “Iridal release the room.” Small vents in the upper corners of the room spewed forth a spray of a foul smelling liquid that the filters on the armor had to work hard to clean. When the liquid touched the foam webbing it melted it leaving a viscous and pasty residue behind. Taji was standing in the center of the room looking down at herself. “what the hell-” she started as she spun to the door. She stopped seeing everyone standing in the door and her eyes widened. The captain crossed his arms as his armor resumed its normal attire and he watched the foul smelling liquid drip from her soaked body and sopping wet hair that now stuck out in all directions.

[Drakel]

Cyriscel met James in hoping that James would be able to take care of the youngling but strangely he was ordered to capture them. Cyriscel's rarely had younglings and even so there were only about five to ten throughout the whole race. When a Wraith youngling is born it is left alone to take care of it's self, so one could only imagine how confused Cyriscel was when it came to actually handling the kids. Already Cyriscel caught only five kids (two girl three boy), the rest he either never found or ran away scared due to that a clawed, and Cyriscel being that had no face was chasing after them. Umm... I-I'm hungry. Said one of the kids both terrified of the Wraith and yet hungry enough to conquer the fear.

What do you want me to do about it?! Said Cyriscel trying his best to do job he was given.

Well, If you are going out into space for a long time you will need to eat food. Said another child.

What I meant was why should I even care about your wanting of food? Said Cyriscel getting many replies from the kids screaming and complaining on how hungry they were. but one said, If I don't eat soon I'm going to die of hunger! These exact words actually stopped Cyriscel for a moment to think, If they don't eat they die? If this is true that would mean I would fail my orders, but I still can't waist time for things as simple as that or else I would fail as well...

After thinking for a moment, Cyriscel continued to walk but he was forced to make a quick conclusion on the situation and the only answer he had was, Ok, You will get your so called "food". We will go to the bridge first and if you move out of the bridge you will not eat. All the kids nodded their heads understanding what would happen if they left Cyriscel and the area sent him.


Cyriscel met James moments later, In an hour of serching all the kids were off the ship.
Latter Cyriscel went to his qurters; hearing a blast Cyriscel ran over twords the area he heard it from, hopeing no one got hurt.

[Ciarda]

For a moment Taji just stood there, unsure of just how to handle the situation. Somehow she was sure that they didn't make cards that covered, "Sorry I blew a hole in your ship." And then it hit her that she had single-handedly blown a hole in the ship! As the woman's lanky form spun on her heel to take in the sight, she couldn't help but grin a little, despite the tirade that she was sure was coming her way. "Holy shit," she muttered as she leaned in closer for a better look. It was, indeed, a hole, but it wasn't as random as an explosion, per se. Looking it over, she noted that it was precise and that she had indeed hit the point that she had been practice-targeting.

"Heh, well, at least we know that sniper-rifle works, Wolfe." she finally said as she slowly turned back around. Tension resided beneath the apparently relaxed features of her facade, but the Shifter did her best to play it off. There was nothing for it now anyway- the hole was quite visibly there, though she couldn't think how. The last thing she remembered was lining up that gun along her arm and sighting it, then thinking about hitting the target... Damn, that must've been it...

[Wardonis]

“Really Wolfe…BATTLE READY???” The captain glared at James with enough heat the junior officers face went red. “Looks like we wont be leaving early after all. Wolfe get her in a bath and clean that crap off of her before it starts melting through her skin. Crewman get maintenance up here and get this room scrubbed and cleared and get them to fix this hole. And for you missy, we’ll have no more oops. NONE, agreed?” The captain asked arching an eyebrow.

[Forgotten Dragon's Ire]

"Yes sir" said James while his face turned red under the glare of his Captain "Follow me Taji we need to get you clean fast." Wolfe left leading Taji to the bath in his quarters. Upon reaching the baths Wolfe remembered his debriefing on this type of liquid and its effects. The acid starts by paralyzing the victims nervous system and then continues to eat away their skin, this was definitely not something Taji should clean off herself by herself as she wouldn't be able to feel the liquid and thus wouldn't be able to tell if she got it all. Quickly realizing this situation James' pale face began to color. Looking around frantically he spotted a crew member,... a female crew member. It was Rooma who had been on her way to the bridge. "Rooma, please take the Lieutenant here and get her scrubbed clean and I mean scrubbed I don't want a single spot of her body missed." Seeing the Rooma hesitate Wolfe commanded "Now!" while blushing furiously.

The Private then took Taji into the baths leaving a blushing Lieutenant Commander in the corridor.

[Heavyman]

Vaenen Zelius was working in engineering trying to get a console working. His armor didn't allow him to use his hands for this job, but it did have secondary mechanical arms for two reasons. One was medical and the other engineering. The guts of the console were strewn about around it, as his hands held a mother board while the arms connected wires and cables into the places, soldering here and there. Eventually he put the console back together and it lit up once more. Zelius cringed his teeth as he heard the sound of another silicon chip breaking. He turned to look, and saw the guts of another machine strewn about. He got up and moved over to the newly broken console, he had just fixed it a day ago too. The kid ran off laughing. For a moment he considered shooting a stream of plasma at the waste of flesh, thought better of it, thinking it would simply burn through the hull.

As he began to repair the console, the captain stormed into engineering. He noticed the captain was just as annoyed with the kids as he was, as the captain looked at the kids scornfully. He took the mother board with him as he followed the captain to see what was going on. The mechanical arms kept working, dancing in their precise almost smooth movements. They gave off quiet whrrs as they worked, his mind controlling them. He lifted his eyes to see the captain begin yelling at another crew member. He didn't quite get all of it as his attention was distracted by the work he had to do with fixing this console. He looked up when he was spoken to.

“You, come here, what's your name?” The captain asked as he saw Zelius the only one with a tool in his hands, working.

Zelius moved forward between the crowd, the mechanical arms halting their work. “Yes Sir, my name is Zelius Sir.”

When he was promoted so quickly to chief engineer, he was surprised very surprised. Although he did qualify quite easily, he had not been on this ship long, and he hadn't had time to quite familiarize himself with it either. Though, he supposed, he could do this by the seat of his pants so to speak.

“Thank you sir.” He said, as the captain moved to leave, and give orders to get the kids off the ship.

As the captain left, he went to work ordering the crew around, orchestrating plans and schemes to round up the brats and send them first class to the nearest airlock. Within ten minutes they were rounded up and taken to leave the ship. And then... the alarms began, as the ship shuddered...

[Ciarda]

Elsewhere, Taji was quite unaware of the changes that had taken place in the crew's make-up. In fact, at the moment, she was more focused on getting the liquid- whatever the hell it was- off her skin. True to the Captain's warning, she had begun to lose feeling in her exposed limbs. While she didn't mind the odd feeling in her cheeks, for example, it was disconcerting and even alarming that she had lost control elsewhere- so much so that for the moment she didn't seem to care that she was fairly exposed in front of a woman that she barely knew. In truth, she had been in more embarrassing scenarios, so that was not the issue.

However, as the woman took the hot rag across her form, both of them noticed the spasms that shook through her skin. It visibly rippled as though trying to figure out what it should do, how it should shift... In truth it was surreal to see and almost gave one the impression that it had a mind of its own. Small shapes appeared across the surface as though melded by a potter's hand, followed by shifts in pigment and texture. Part of her arm nearly scratched Rooma's hand with a sandpaper-like texture, while her shoulder retained a smooth, glass-like feel. The skin was trying desperately to maintain its ability to shift- and losing.

Rooma also noted the strange ridges that ran along the woman's spine and shoulder blades. When she tilted her head to one side, Taji informed her as best as she could that they were heat-storage and dispenser cells.

As they finished, Taji shook her head and her limbs and the skin snapped back to, like a rubber band suddenly released. The Shifter tilted her head to one side and another, cracking her neck. Finally able to speak again, she chuckled a bit as she clutched the towel about her person. "Well, now I feel like we've gotten to know each other SO well."

[Wardonis]

Captains log star date 4*13*5h3*24. The past five days have been some of the most trying of my carreer; so much so that the thought of the mission to come leaves my quesy. The crew has potential but damn if it wont take a hell of a lot of work to hone them to a fine blade. Ill provide my initial impression for each of the senior bridge officers.

-Wolfe is what I trained him to be, fast on the initiative and smart in his actions, though at times he is too eager or impatient and doesnt stop to consider all of the potential consequences to his actions. He is also a good leader and the crew respects him, Im considering promoting him to full commander.

-Petrova is almost a child in some respects and in others I almost find myself about to ask her advise on things. Its rather annoying. I can’t take my eyes off her or she does something stupid, like blow a hole in the side of the ship; but once we reach a point where we will be forced into a direct encounter with the Skree I know I’m going to be glad she is with us.

-Cyriscel is a decent officer I can’t see myself using him in any capacity other then what he is in at the moment. A good officer but like many of his race he is nearly emotionless and displays poor interaction with other crewmembers.

-Zelius was definitely the right choice for the chief engineer promotion, he displays all the characteristics of a workaholic, I like him already. I promoted him to 1st Lt before we made our jump earlier. He’s a more that a little over the top but he is capable at just about anything, If for some reason the crew was to loose me I’m sure Wolfe would chose him as his first officer.

-Stepton at first glanced seemed green at everything at or away from his consol but over the past five days he has proven it to be true. There are definitely things though that he will prove invaluable. How the thought a shooting someone else in a fire fight turns his face the color of a melon but he’s perfectly happy and content to go rooting around inside a corpse I’ll never know. I’ll toughen him up yet.

-Light is quiet, self involved and dedicated to the point I sometimes find myself on the brink of yelling at her for being too restricted by protocol. She wont do anything without being ordered to and can’t seem to make a decision on her own. She comes to me with every little thing instead of going to Wolfe like she should. Her tardiness isn’t a factor yet but when she isn’t late to something she’s worried she is and that can be just as annoying.

-Our AI ’Iridal’ is the only one I want gone but I can’t seem to do anything about her. She is belligerent, evasive and downright arrogant. She does stick to protocol but walks the line provoking me when she knows I’m unable to do anything.

Currently we are late, a fact that I’m sure reflects in my attitude because the crew seem to be taking special precautions not to accidentally run into me or to disappear when I pass by. We should have left the system two days ago not this morning. Petrova’s accident has set us back tremendously I just hope it hasn’t jeopardize the mission.

We made a successful jump and should arrive in system mid-afternoon tomorrow. The new engine system seems to working well and Zelius tells me that were actually more efficient on the power then the initial CMC report would suggest. I feel it took the AI too long to calculate the jump but I’m sure that will improve over time; either that or I‘ll have her replaced, something I am trying to find a reason for.

Our shuttle was replaced with a better modle, not the one I wanted, but a sutable substitution. It Made Barkly the hanger chief happy that we got rid of that last one. At the moment he is trying to retrofit it to make it better I may assign Zelius to help him and his crew for the remainder of the jump.

This ends my report I’ll make another after we complete the imidiate asignment.

[Ciarda]

Once Rooma left, Taji busied herself with getting dressed and drying her hair. Thankfully, it was thin and straight enough that there was little styling to do. In fact, all that the Shifter did as far as making herself "presentable" was to pull her hair back in a ponytail and get it out of her face. As she pulled her boots on, she realized that now she had two things to handle- the explanation to Marcus and doing some serious damage control on this whole "hole in the ship" thing. The woman sighed and lowered her head into her hands, her long fingers rubbing little circles in her temples. how had it snowballed this fast? Sure, she expected things to be rocky, but in no universe had she ever imagined it would be this hard to adjust. In fact, the CMC had promised her that it would be relatively easy...

You're used to a hierarchy system, right, Petrova?

Ch, yeah.
Well, this is just a... stricter form of it. We don't do things by favors, but you should catch on to that pretty quickly.

There was just no way to read this situation. Maybe this was a bad idea... she said to herself as she stood and began pacing. This wasn't the world she was used to and she was slowly discovering that it would take every bit of her street-smarts and know-how to safely navigate it. She barely had the basics down, after all... Well, girl, nothin to do but get your ass in gear... she said and with that she headed down the hall and placed the request as politely as possible for a private audience with the Captain.

A few days later, as she pointed the ship in the right direction- she WAS the navigations officer after all- Taji sat, her onyx gaze blank and soulless as ever as her ear picked up the Captain's command. Her eyes visibly narrowed at the sound and with pursed lips, she said simply, K. before continuing with the panel before her. And that was all. When a crew member asked her how she slept, her temper flared, and it was not the last time they would see it. No one heard what she said, but the poor junior officer walked away protectively holding her side and looking like she was about to cry. Taji's jaw was set- she was itching for a fight. This beating around the bush did nothing for her pent-up aggression.

[Wardonis]

The Captain leaned back in his chair and braced himself for the exit of the jump. The whine of the inertial dampeners powering up was almost deafening. Just as the whine came to a head a flash went through the ship as the ship dropped into normal space. The captain let out his breath just realizing he’d been holding it. Every muscle in his body was stiff and he nearly had to pry his hand from the armrest. He’d been so concerned with the rapid deceleration the ship went through when it left the jump that it never occurred to him that the inertial dampeners would be enough to completely negate the immense negative G forces the ship would go through as it immerged back in normal space.

“Status and position.” he ordered.

“Captain were going to be blind for a few minutes until the sensors have a chance to start to pattern but all systems are showing green.“ Vaenen responded.

A few minutes later Taji chimed in with, “picking up our location now, were currently fifty light minutes out, I estimate it’ll take a little under two hours to reach the gate at top speed with conventional engines.”

“Alright, Lay in a coarse. Wolfe, when we reach the gate I want you to get with Zelius and get plenty of explosives from him. I want you to plant it all over the gate with a twenty minute trigger and tie that trigger to the gates activation. When you have everything you need take it down to Hanger Chief Barkley and have him fit you out on one of the two man fighters and, take your girlfriend there with ya. Zelius if you would please head over and begin preparing the explosives. Call me, If either of you need me I’ll be in the lounge.”

The captain didn’t miss the reddening of James’ cheeks or Taji’s, though hers was out of anger not embarsiment. However, the captain missed the look of shock that flashed across the face of Marcus standing behind him.

[Forgotten Dragon's Ire]

"Ye..yes sir" Wolfe said trying to hide his blush and not succeeding very well and deciding it would be best to just set the course for the gate. Turning to the console he put up his tinted visor to shade his eyes... and to hide his blush he went to work. In a few minutes he was happily navigating the Maelstrom the captains earlier remark about him and Taji forgotten. The captain's remark may have been forgotten to James but it wasn't to Marcus who seemed depressed and out of sorts although no one seemed to notice.

In approximately 109 minutes the gate came in sight to the crew and James brought the ship to halt a short distance from the gate. Getting up from the console James said "Alright Taji lets head on out." and proceeded off the bridge not even waiting to see if Taji was following or to notice Marcus' glare at his indifferent attitude to her.

In the hallway James stopped and activated a comm link directly to Zelius "Lieutenant Zelius I hear you have some explosives for me."

"Yes sir, I have 80 megatons of explosives right here all set with timers that will react to the Cherenkov radiation that will occur as... Knowing this to be a lengthy explanation James cut Zelius off mid-sentence. Thanks Zelius I'm familiar with the system all i needed to know was that it was ready to go. I'll be down in a few minutes." With that James cut the link before Zelius could go on with the explanation on how the explosives operated.

Seeing Taji exit the bridge James continued on his way to pick up the explosives. Upon arriving to the armory he was amazed at the sheer amount of explosives laying in the room. In the corner there was Zelius tinkering away on one of the bombs' timer. Hearing the door slide open Zelius looked up and said "Ah just in time I just finished setting up these timers to... " James held up a hand to stave off a long explanation "start when the gates activate." Zelius explained succinctly. That's great, now we just need to get these on the fighters..." with a sigh James bent down to lift one of the explosives. "Oh don't worry about that I have some machines to transport them to the ship. If i were you I'd just get that ship ready for launch while I take care of the loading." Zelius said with a dismissive wave "Keep the good work up Zelius. Come along Taji we still need to get that ship ready"

Within minutes they had obtained and primed the two man fighter for the flight and got her loaded with all the explosives that they would need. After a short flight they had the fighter docked to the gate and had a lift with all the explosives loaded onto it and ready to start dropping them off. Alright Taji I'll get on the lift and start dropping these bombs off at 30 yard intervals for the most effect to blow this thing. You follow along and double check to make sure these things are armed and set for the explosion. Hopefully in a few days the Skree will get a nasty surprise." James said in a grim tone

[Drakel]

For the last few days Cyriscel worked just like he was ordered to do from the start. No one but James would have expected that even for his race he was able to work so endlessly. He never even talked; just focused on his control panel making sure nothing would go wrong with the weaponry or just doing anything else that had to do with his job. He never really tried to get to know the crew or even spoke to them. All he would do is his job, until one day he literately had to get yelled at from caption to just stop and get some rest after a three day streak of working nonstop. On earth it would seem as though he worked day and night. If no one stopped him it would be obvious that he would be working 24/7 The only times he ever stopped was to get himself energy from a few crystals in his room that he kept to stay alive without feeling starvation from lack of energy.

The next day the jump they were in ended; the jump might have had some sort of effect with the others but Cyriscel didn’t even notice that they were in a jump until the last second. When all of the systems come back online Cyriscel noticed that one of the dome turrets was for some reason jammed due to a small asteroid that got inside it after the jump. Cyriscel got up and walked out of his position to talk with the caption. After reaching the caption Cyriscel said, caption, dome turret on left wing is jammed. Permission to go out and fix it while you, James and Taji are out to explode the gate? He knew what he was doing might be dangerous but he was the only one that didn’t need some sort of space suit to go out into space; unlike the other crew men that needs them. Presides if the caption sent some sort of crew man out in a space suit it was more risky than sending the Wraith because of course if something goes wrong with their space suits they would surly die.

[Ciarda]

On the gate, Taji followed a few yards behind James, her heavy boots thudding softly as they carefully tread the surface. Per his instructions, she held the bag and handed him each explosive as they set the trap for the Skree. In truth, she wondered why the hell she had even been assigned to the task. It may have been her bad mood, but in her opinion, this was a one-man job. It didn't take much to arm an explosive, secure it, and move on. If anything, she should be securing a perimeter or something, not lugging a bag behind Wolfe like a pack-mule. On the bright side, at least she had the chance to work with explosives, which fell under the "highly destructive" area of expertise in her resume. And while the Captain's highly unprofessional comments irked her, the "BANG" that would result from these beauties was enough to make her smile at least a little. Indeed, this was almost underhanded- it reminded her of a few missions that she had taken for the Da, the head of the syndicate.

Taji's thoughts were abruptly interrupted as she bent to set an explosive before handing it to James. The lights flickered briefly, and an odd sound reached her ears. It was low and grating, like metal scraping metal, and the woman was unsure about the source as she looked around. But after a moment, it stopped, and they both continued with their work. When She ran the sound by James, Taji found that he had heard nothing, and her expression darkened decidedly. Shifters can hear sounds both lower and higher than their human counterparts, and she had heard this as clear as a train whistle. But, we are in the middle of space, she thought to herself. It was probably just a couple of asteroids scraping the gate or something. Indeed, she had no reason to suspect it of being hostile, there had been nothing else but the sound and the lights- and this was an older gate...

Another flicker of the lights and this time, they actually went out. It only lasted a few seconds, but in that time, Taji noticed something about the explosives in her bag. In the darkness surrounding them, the bombs glowed like so many feral eyes. Furthermore, the red numbers were no longer frozen in place, but were COUNTING DOWN. 20:00... 19:59... 19:58... The Shifter took a moment to breath before checking the rest of the bag. From inside, a glowing mass of decreasing numbers greeted her onyx gaze, and her brows furrowed. Hey James...

Wolfe turned and looked at her inquisitively. Yeah?

I think we're f***ed Taji tossed him the explosive in her hand and tilted the bag so that he could see the other glowing pieces.

[Forgotten Dragon's Ire]

Staring uncomprehendingly James' mind refused to accept the fact that the leisurely chore of rigging the place to blow had just become a nightmarish hell full to bursting with little red numbers ticking down he stood there with his eyes widening. "Oh crap..." James exclaimed with fear evident in his voice. "We should definitely get back to that ship of ours"

"Way to point out the obvious James..." Taji said in a sardonic tone.

"Well then lets not be late" James said with a bit of stress on the word late and with that he grabbed the bag and began dashing forward. Taji seeing his mad dash forward remembered that the gate was a massive ring of sorts and that they were almost all the way around. With a quick glance down at the ticking numbers surrounding her she made a sprint toward James and the safety of the ship. Following behind as she was, she noticed that James was throwing the bombs to his right at as close as she could judge 30 yard intervals.

"Careful with those we don't want them to explode NOW!""Well excuse me but I want as big as an explosion as possible missy so please keep quiet" James responded rather waspishly. At that Taji just shut up and saved her energy for running.

Glancing down at one of the bombs timer he saw they had only 5 minutes and 42 seconds left on the clock and the bag was only slowing him down. With a final despairing cry he tossed the entire bag to the side and put the rest of his energy into a mad dash for the docking bay.

In just minutes the bay doors appeared ahead of them and they made a skidding stop at the doors frantically hitting the opening mechanism and frantically moving with all haste toward the ship. Barely pausing to breathe they strapped themselves into the ship and brought the ship to life with a dull hum of her engine. Looking down at the display James saw 3 numbers and so did Taji. "UM... you better hurry because I really don't feel comfortable with only 1 minute and 12 seconds to get clear of this thing" Taji said with an anxious undertone to her voice. "Leave the flying to me... I'll get us out" James said grimly. "hopefully" he added in a mutter. Taji just pretended to not hear that last part.

In seconds they had gotten the ship out of the docking bay and on its way out of there. Before they were even most of the way out of the danger zone the gate exploded and the ship they were in was thrown by the sheer magnitude of the detonation the wrong direction and away from the Maelstrom.

[Wardonis]

A few hours into the operation the captain sat in the lounge drinking a hot cup of double black coffee and reviewing a map of the system; when Iridal’s voice came over the speakers. “Captain, the gate just activated.” The Captain’s hand paused in the motion of setting the cup down, mere inches above the table. “Say again.” “The ring just activated sir. Something is on its way through, we have just over an hour before the first ship clears the gate.” The cup skidded across the table splashing its nearly boiling liquid across the surface as the Captain shot through the door to the bridge.

Intercepting him on the way to the bridge Cyriscel waved him to a stop. “Caption, dome turret on left wing is jammed. Permission to go out and fix it while, James and Taji are out to explode the gate?” “Wait on that for the moment we have a situation, take your position. And its Captain not Caption. I wont tell you again.”

Bursting on the bridge the captain demanded a report. “Sir, the gate just opened and its protective shield to prevent entry from this side is up. We can’t detect how many ships are coming through because there is a very heavy jamming field being emitted from the other side. At the moment we still have local sensors but all of our communications are jammed.” Marcus said in a rush “Where are Wolfe and Petrova?” “Just past three fourths of the way around and we have no way to communicate with them.” His voice sounded almost panicked.

“Iridal whats our distance?” “Thirteen light seconds out from the ring Sir.” “What?!? Why are we so far away?” “I’m afraid that’s my fault.” Stepton turned a mixture of white and green as the Captains glare fell on him. “I wanted to study the minerals in a local meteorite.” The Captain turned his glare away, getting mad now would only make matters worse. Then a thought crossed his mind. “Iridal are we in range for the Mag-Rails still?” “Yes captain” “Are your targeting sensors still able to pinpoint parts of the Ring?” “Yes Captain.” “Okay here we go, Cyriscel, I want you to target and take out all three fusion reactors on that ring; we need to bring that shield down. Blacking it out will also give Wolfe and Petrova the hint if they haven’t figured it out already.”
As Cyriscel began targeting the power reactors the captain turned around looking into Marcus’ eyes. “Thank you, you gave me an idea. Iridal, after Cyriscel takes out those reactors set a coarse for Steptons asteroid.”

[Ciarda]

The sun shone even in the darkening sky, its close proximity thickening the descending night air until it was almost a tangible force. All around, the stars began to stand out; millions of pin-pricks winking like diamond dust spilled across blue velvet. The sight of it sparked such a feeling of insignificance in Taji. So many stars... and yet each one had its own light, and shone with its own fire. Long ago, Aro had told her that most were suns unto themselves, and fed a series of planets, much like their own class F star. Each star has its own path, it's own family to tend to and must burn its own path She heard his words as clearly as though he were standing behind her. Just as each of us must burn our own. And yet, if any of those stars would extinguish, we would notice, because their light would no longer shine on us. There would be a just a hole... The woman's crimson hair picked up in the breeze and she took a long, last look at the sky before shouldering her rifle and continuing down the dune.

A sharp gasp filled the cockpit as Taji awakened. The sound of cracking bone and slippery, melding skin filled the tiny room as ripples of anxiety literally waved through her epidermis. In the midst of her dreaming, she had forgotten where she actually was. Frantically, her dark eyes took in the small confines surrounding her, seering the shadows for anything that might require a sharp stabbing. After a few seconds of jittery looking-round, however, she began to calm down and recognize her surroundings. Her skin smoothed out and soon she was able to properly use her senses to assess the situation.

Immediately, she noticed that there was no thrust, no whir of engines. Indeed, all that reached her ridged ears was the echoing silence of space and a darkness so complete that even her eyes had difficulty sighting anything. Only a handful of lights on her partner's side of the cockpit showed any sign of lift; the rest blinked unstably.

This left very little to her field of vision and all that the Shifter could effectively see, in reality, in fact, other than a distant light- the light of her own, familiar sun- was the silhouette of James in front of her. She also noted that he wasn't moving. James. she said simply. Floating in space or not, she was still cross with him for the attitude that he had taken with her. James. she said a little louder. Wolfe! When he still didn't answer, the woman narrowed her eyes and uttered a series of expletives that would make the most hardened soldier blush. With great effort, she unstrapped herself from her seat and sat up on her knees so that she could reach over the top of the seat. Not an ounce of guilt crossed her mind for punching him in the temple two seconds later.